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My life as a prison officer.

It wasn't just the smell that hit you.

It was the noise.

Written and read by Alex South.

As a former prison officer, I have opened thousands of cell doors.

For almost a decade, I unlocked cells in residential blocks, healthcare units, first night

centres, close supervision centres and segregation units.

The twist and click of a key in the lock came to feel like background noise to me. But there are some occasions I remember more vividly than others.

Sometimes the person inside wasn't so keen on coming out.

One of those challenging incidents took place a few years ago, while I was on shift in a segregation

unit in a busy London jail.

Prisoners are sent to the Seg for a variety of reasons. Fights, assaults on staff, possession

of contraband, but normally for no longer than a week or two. The Seg was made up of 18

single cells spread over two stories. I was in a team of six,

all of us in full riot gear. We were moving a mentally ill prisoner who had destroyed his cell

and then flooded it with sewage because he believed we were planning to implant a chip in his brain.

His story is not an isolated one. In 2024, the chief inspector of prisons

...